Political commentary from the LA Times

Herman Cain to Iran: 'If you mess with Israel you're messing with the USA'

July 18, 2011 | 6:49
pm

Herman Cain loves deep dish pizza, but he may love Israel more. How do I know? I'm pretty sure he wouldn't go to war with a man who stole a pepperoni slice; but if he were president and if a country, even one with a huge army like Iran's, caused problems with an ally like Israel, there'd be trouble.

"If you mess with Israel you're messing with the United States of America," the Georgia businessman laid out plainly in his "Cain Doctrine."

“Option A is, 'Folks, we are not going to allow you to attack Israel,' " the GOP presidential hopeful told the Washington Times.

The official religion in Iran just happens to be Islam. Cain took a controversial stance Sunday when he said that he felt communities, like one in Murfreesboro, Tenn., have the right to ban mosques.

"Let's go back to the fundamental issue that the people are basically saying that they are objecting to," Cain said on "Fox News Sunday".

"They are objecting to the fact that Islam is both religion and a set of laws, Sharia law. That's the difference between any one of our other traditional religions where it's just about religious purposes," Cain said.

"I happen to also know that it's not just about a religious mosque," Cain, who had recently campaigned in Murfreesboro, said. "There are other things going on based upon talking to the people closest to the problem. It's not a mosque for religious purposes. This is what the people are objecting to."

"It's clear that Herman Cain has decided that he will score political points every time he bashes the Muslim community or its constitutional rights," Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told the Associated Press.

Hooper says Cain "seems to have hitched his wagon to the most extreme anti-Muslim bigots out there."

Photo: Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain greets supporters at a campaign rally in Murfreesboro, Tenn., on Thursday. Cain told reporters that he opposes a planned mosque that has been the subject of protests and legal challenges. Credit: AP Photo/Erik Schelzig